Arts Jan 28 To everything there is a season: Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger dies at 94 Pete Seeger, the legendary folk musician who helped spearhead the American folk revival, died Monday night in New York City at the age of 94 from natural causes. Across more than seven decades, he inspired scores of singer-songwriters, activists and…
Poetry Jan 27 Weekly Poem: Peter Cole writes about why we read poetry Peter Cole thinks of all poetry as translation. "Writing one's own poetry, you're translating a nonverbal experience or a less than articulate experience into something much more articulate," he told Art Beat. In addition to writing his own, Cole translates…
Arts Jan 27 Daft Punk got ‘Lucky’ at the 2014 Grammys Daft Punk swept the stage Sunday night at the 56th Grammy Awards. The duo took home many of the coveted awards, including record of the year for "Get Lucky" and album of the year for "Random Access Memories." But the…
Arts Jan 24 Remembering Argentine poet Juan Gelman "The moment he died in Argentina, the entire country came to a halt. It understood that part of its soul had left," Ilan Stavans told chief arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown. Stevens is a writer and a professor of Latin American…
Poetry Jan 20 Weekly Poem: Elizabeth Alexander honors MLK Day with stories of the black experience Poet Elizabeth Alexander "cant untether" herself from history, especially when reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. When she offered her own work in commemoration of the holiday, Alexander read four poems that travel through history to "give us a…
Arts Jan 17 For Rita Moreno, an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony, an Oscar and now a SAG Life Achievement Award Rita Moreno is the only Latino American to win an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and an Oscar. And on Saturday, the 82-year-old actress will receive a new award: the Screen Actor Guild (SAG) Life Achievement Award. In October, Moreno sat down…
Arts Jan 16 POLL: What are your picks for the Academy Awards? Early Thursday morning the Oscar nominations were announced in Los Angeles. But, before the Academy decides, we at Art Beat want to hear from you. Tell us, what -- and who -- should win at the Academy Awards this year?…
Arts Jan 15 ’12 Years’ writer on how Hollywood does a ‘poor job’ depicting slavery At Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony, the movie won Best Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for six other awards, including best screen play. Screenwriter John Ridley spoke to PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown in November about his film, adapted from the…
Arts Jan 15 In Detroit, a $330 million deal could save the art and the pensions While debate raged about the prospect of liquidating the collection at the Detroit Institute of Art, U.S. Chief District Judge Gerald Rosen, the federal mediator in the Detroit bankruptcy, came up with an innovative, alternative solution. Rosen called the head…
Poetry Jan 13 Weekly Poem: Michael Davidson reads ‘The Terror’ Michael Davidson is a professor of literature at University of California, San Diego. Davidson has published five other books of poetry, including "The Arcades" (O Books, 1998). "Bleed Through: New and Selected Poems" (Coffee House Press, 2013), published in December,…